The Problem of Evil

this is why i am an atheist. long ago a friend died, and i had to try figure out why. i was still a mild believer. my grandma had repeatedly fed me the mantra, god is love. so why wud a just, benevolent god, who is love, create this world, filled as it is with evil? thats my question.

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ive seen arguments that jaspanese have little sence of self, and that this is the cause of the many workaholics that were and still are here. yes, sucsessor developement is a maj prob in japanese compasnies. here its nothing to do with religion per se. here its the culture. and i have to say i see little empathy for others here.

perhaps god is a skapegoat. thebeliever can always say god did that, i didn't. wouldnt th=at interfear with the creation of self in our western culture.

I grew up in a dysfunctional family where the bible was read from cover to cover - all true and all god´s word, they said. It didn´t take me long to find inconsistences; to whom were Adam & Eve´s children married? Why is a loving god so content with genocide? why is the one and only god jealous of other gods? Then I tried to cash in the promises made in the bible: an earthly father would give his child what it needs and heavenly father would do it even better - both let me down of course.

Living in a dysfunctional family opened my eyes to the fact that the religious answers to problems never work, so I grew up as fast as I could and left my parents and their church at the first opportunity.

Gautam Buddha was much affected by the grief and sorrow he saw among human beings. Consequently, he became an atheist. The pain, sorrow, grief are the evils of human life. I was much affected by the poverty I saw around me and the consequent pains, particularly to the children. Simultaneously, I also saw the people's blind and irrational faith. Both these things made me think deeply and finally lead to a strong atheist beleif.

When I became an atheist 40 years ago, I had almost no knowledge of christianity. I realised that the hindu gods were creations of humans and that was it. I never thought that gods were evil and that is why I have no strong dislike or hate for gods or religion.

Madhukar - Even though you have not undertaken the horrific decimation of being subjected to religious and barbaric rites of religion - please step back and take in the wonders of the blood shed by Christianity - women being multilated to force 'confessions' to the 'church' could take her assets - and then burned at the stake. Tens of thousands of women - and this was after the 'church' had alrady murdered as many men as possible.

Stand in their shoes for just a minute and perhaps your 'dislike' of gods or religion will increase just a bit.

How about I provide just one name for you. Her name was Fanny Alger - she was 'taken' by a Christian prophet when she was age 13 - and she and he were caught 'in the act' in his barn by his wife.

This did not deter this Christian prophet of God - no - he made her his 2nd wife at age 16 - and then went on to have a total of 39-wives - many already married to other men.

id just like to say that the reason i started the thread was i was reading "Misquoting jesus" by Brad Ehrman, at the end of which he says hes an agnostic not because of his reasearch on the boble, but because of the problem of evil

The problem is that when you're a woman in the middle of one of the major religions, you don't see the ridiculous and immoral "lessons' in the buy-bull or the man-made rules created to control women and make them feel like they are inferior and flawed. If it is the way one was raised, what they see and hear every day becomes normal and one assumes that ALL families work the same way. Some people are, early on, able to see there are inconsistencies and unbelievable fables in religion and intuitively know religion is BS...others are unable to see it until they reach their teens, others in middle age (like me), and some NEVER give up the comfort of a afterlife, "god's grace," and the fear of hell - all with no basis of evidence.